Georgia rallies to beat Georgia Tech in OT

Hutson Mason threw for 299 yards and two touchdowns and Todd Gurley scored four times to lead Georgia to a wild come-from-behind 41-34 double-overtime victory over Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Georgia finished its regular season at 8-4 while Georgia Tech fell to 7-5.

Gurley’s third rushing touchdown, a 25-yarder on the first play of the second overtime, was the difference in the game.

The day started horribly for the Bulldogs, as the Yellow Jackets roared out to a 20-0 lead behind the passing of Vad Lee, who threw for 171 yards on just seven pass attempts in the first half. Meanwhile, Mason, who started in place of the injured Aaron Murray, struggled at the outset for the Dawgs.

That all changed late in the first half when Mason finally found his rhythm, completing all five of his passes to lead UGA to a touchdown just before thee break. It carried over into the third quarter as the Bulldogs cut the lead to 20-17 thanks to a 40-yard Marshall Morgan field goal and a nine-yard touchdown pass from Mason toMichael Bennett.

Tech bounced back in the fourth quarter by driving 75 yards to score on a seven-yard pass from Lee to DeAndreSmelter to put the lead back at 10, 27-17. But Georgia responded with a 77-yard drive that ended in Gurley’s first rushing touchdown.

All the Yellow Jackets had to do at this point was hang on for the remaining 6:37 and they would have their first win over their in-state rivals since 2008. But on the next drive Lee gift-wrapped a pass to Georgia safety JoshHarvey-Clemons, who returned it to the Tech 25 yard line. The Bulldogs stalled at the 15-yard line but tied the game with Morgan’s 32-yard field goal with 4:17 to play. Both teams failed to score on their final drives and the game went to overtime.

In the first OT, Lee redeemed himself somewhat by scoring his second rushing touchdown of the game. But that’s when Gurley took over for Georgia.

The sophomore had carries of 8, 11 and six yards, the final one for the score, to score UGA’s first OT touchdown, then took his next carry in the second OT for his fourth score of the day. Tech failed to score on its next drive and the Dawgs got the win.

On a day when college football saw several dramatic finishes, this one didn’t quite stack up. But Georgia showed a lot of heart in coming back to win this game. This was a team that showed so much promise early in the year before being decimated by injuries. Credit to the Dawgs for not packing it in.